Chapter I: Front Matter

PAGE

CHAPTER I

SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 1

The oriental period, 2. The classical historians, 3. The
mediæval and modern histories, 4.

CHAPTER II

MATERIALS FOR THE WRITING OF HISTORY 5

CHAPTER III

THE METHODS OF THE HISTORIANS 9

CHAPTER IV

WORLD HISTORIES 13

CHAPTER V

THE PRESENT HISTORY 22

BOOK II. A GLIMPSE INTO THE PREHISTORIC PERIOD

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY 32

CHAPTER II

COSMOGONY--ANCIENT AND MODERN IDEAS AS TO THE ORIGIN
OF THE WORLD 33

CHAPTER III

COSMOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY--ANCIENT AND MODERN IDEAS 38

CHAPTER IV

THE ANTIQUITY OF THE EARTH AND OF MAN 40

CHAPTER V

THE RACES OF MAN AND THE ARYAN QUESTION 43

CHAPTER VI

ON PREHISTORIC CULTURE 45

Language, 44. Clothing and housing of prehistoric man, 46.
The use of fire, 46. Implements of peace and war, 47. The
domestication of animals, 47. Agriculture, 48. Government, 49.
The arts of painting, sculpture, and decorative architecture,
50. The art of writing, 50.

PART II. EGYPT

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. EGYPT AS A WORLD INFLUENCE.
By Dr. Adolf Erman 57

EGYPTIAN HISTORY IN OUTLINE (4400-332 B.C.) 65

CHAPTER I

THE EGYPTIAN RACE AND ITS ORIGIN 77

The country and its inhabitants, 81. Prehistoric Egypt, 88.

CHAPTER II

THE OLD MEMPHIS KINGDOM (_ca._ 4400-2700 B.C.) 90

The first dynasty, 90. The second dynasty, 92. The third
dynasty, 92. The pyramid dynasty, 93. A modern account of the
pyramids, 95. The builders of the pyramids, 98. The beautiful
Nitocris, 104.

CHAPTER III

THE OLD THEBAN KINGDOM (_ca._ 2700-1635 B.C.) 106

The eleventh dynasty, 106. The voyage to Punt, 108. The
twelfth dynasty, 110. Monuments of the twelfth dynasty; a
classical view, 113. The ruins of Karnak, 115. The fall of the
Theban kingdom, 117. The foreign rule, 118. The Hyksos rule;
the seventeenth dynasty, 121.

CHAPTER IV

THE RESTORATION (_ca._ 1635-1365 B.C.) 126

Eighteenth dynasty, 126. The Hyksos expulsion: Aahmes and his
successors, 127. Tehutimes II; Queen Hatshepsu, 133. Triumphs
of Tehutimes III; his successors, 136.

CHAPTER V

THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY (_ca._ 1365-1285 B.C.) 141

King Seti, 142. Ramses (II) the Great, 144. The war-poem of
Pentaur, 148. The kingdom of the Kheta and the nineteenth
dynasty, 150. Death of Ramses II, 153.

CHAPTER VI

THE FINDING OF THE ROYAL MUMMIES 155

How came these monarchs here? 157.

CHAPTER VII

THE PERIOD OF DECAY (NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH DYNASTIES:
_ca._ 1285-655 B.C.) 162

Meneptah, 162. From Setnekht to Ramses VIII and Meri-Amen
Meri-Tmu, 166. The sorrows of a soldier, 170. Egypt under the
dominion of mercenaries, 171. The Ethiopian conquest, 174.
Table of contemporaneous dynasties, 179.

CHAPTER VIII

THE CLOSING SCENES (TWENTY-SIXTH TO THIRTY-FIRST DYNASTIES:
655-322 B.C.) 180

Psamthek, 180. The good king Sabach (Shabak) and Psammetichus,
184. The restoration in Egypt, 185. The Persian conquest and
the end of Egyptian autonomy, 188. The atrocities of Cambyses,
191.

CHAPTER IX

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE EGYPTIANS 196

The position of the king, 198. Weapons of war, 202. Battle
methods, 205. Social customs, 208. The Egyptians as seen by
Herodotus, 212. Homes of the people, 216.

CHAPTER X

THE EGYPTIAN RELIGION 219

Religious festivals and offerings, 222. Gifts and riches of
temples, 225. Diodorus on animal worship, 228. A modern account
of the worship of Apis, the sacred bull, 232. The methods of
embalming the dead, 236.

CHAPTER XI

EGYPTIAN CULTURE 240

The hieroglyphics, 249. “By what characters, pictures, and
images the learned Egyptians expressed the mysteries of their
mindes,” 250. The riddle of the sphinx, 251. Literature, 257.
The Castaway: a tale of the twelfth dynasty, 260.

CHAPTER XII

CONCLUDING SUMMARY OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY 263

APPENDIX A

CLASSICAL TRADITIONS 267

Another ancient account of the Nile, 273. A Greek view of the
origins of Egyptian history, 278.

APPENDIX B

THE PROBLEM OF EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY 287

Manetho’s table of the Egyptian dynasties, 291.

BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS 293

A GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY 295

PART III. MESOPOTAMIA

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. THE RELATIONS OF BABYLONIA WITH OTHER
SEMITIC COUNTRIES. By Joseph Halévy 309

MESOPOTAMIAN HISTORY IN OUTLINE (6000-538 B.C.) 318

CHAPTER I

LAND AND PEOPLE 337

The land, 338. Original peoples of Babylon: the Sumerians,
342. The Semitic Babylonians, 344. The original home of the
Babylonian Semite, 347.

CHAPTER II

OLD BABYLONIAN HISTORY (_ca._ 4500-745 B.C.) 349

The beginnings of history, 351. The rulers of Shirpurla,
351. Kings of Kish and Gishban, 356. The first dynasty of Ur,
359. Kings of Agade, 360. The kings of Ur, 363. Accession of a
south Arabian dynasty, 363. The Kassite dynasty, 364. Assyrian
conquest of Babylon, 364.

CHAPTER III

THE RISE OF ASSYRIA (_ca._ 3000-726 B.C.) 366

Land and people, 369. Assyrian capitals: Asshur and Nineveh,
371. The rise of Assyria, 372. The first great Assyrian
conqueror, 377. The reign and cruelty of Asshurnazirpal, 380.
Shalmaneser II and his successors, 387. Tiglathpileser III,
391. Shalmaneser IV, 395.

CHAPTER IV

FOUR GENERATIONS OF ASSYRIAN GREATNESS (722-626 B.C.) 397

Sennacherib, 403. Esarhaddon and Asshurbanapal, 416.
Esarhaddon’s reign, 419. Asshurbanapal’s early years, 425. The
Brothers’ War, 431. The last wars of Asshurbanapal, 434.

CHAPTER V

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF ASSYRIA (626-606 B.C.) 438

Last years and fall of the Assyrian Empire, 440.

CHAPTER VI

RENASCENCE AND FALL OF BABYLON (555-538 B.C.) 446

Contemporary chronology, 448. Nabopolassar and Nebuchadrezzar,
449. The followers of Nebuchadrezzar, 453. The reign of
Nabonidus, 455.